Suggestion Saturday: February 2, 2013

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Here is this week’s list of blog posts, videos, quotes and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.- Anaïs Nin

The Science of Sex Abuse. Trigger warning for rape and childhood sexual abuse. I don’t know if any of my followers are unusually sensitive to that topic…but you have been warned! Everyone agrees that sexual abuse is horrifying. What we don’t always agree on is what the best way is to stop current abusers and prevent tomorrow’s rapists from attacking anyone. The problem is we haven’t figured out the most effective treatment yet.

Father Time is My Peer via StoryRoute. A man visits old classmates in a nursing home and contemplates his future. It was hard to choose just one essay from this site as so many of them stretched my mind.

It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves.

Many years ago my aunt gave me a copy of What Katy Did for Christmas. It tells the story of a girl living in the nineteenth century whose spine is injured in a accident. One day she’s healthy and active, the next she’s bedridden and in terrible pain. Given the time period this was written in there is of course some heavy-handed moralizing about being a good example and proper young woman but what I remember loving about the story is how Katy is encouraged to find a kernel of joy in even the most hopeless circumstances.